Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 367 The Corpse Wrapped in White Cloth
Inside the stone hall were many rotten wooden bed frames, covered with ten-centimeter-thick wooden planks, about 1.2 meters wide, with ample space between the upper and lower planks, and a total of three layers from top to bottom.

It's clear that the wood used for these bed frames is uniform, and they are arranged neatly, just like those old-fashioned communal dormitories that were forced to relocate due to hauntings. There are probably thousands of them.

This place is located very deep underground, and the stone chamber is extremely cold and damp.

One of the workers, rubbing his arms, couldn't help but ask, "Is this Zhang Family Ancient Building? Why does it look like this? It's like a mortuary from a horror movie."

“No.” Xie Yuchen held up a flashlight and shone it next to one of the wooden beds. On the edge of the top bed, there was a strange symbol written in white paint, followed by a string of numbers, “1032”.

Looking further down, the number changed to "1031", but the symbol remained the same.

"What's this? It looks like a bed number." When Panzi was in the army, he lived in a large dormitory with hundreds of people, and their names and numbers were written on the headboard of their beds.

For example, Li Gou Dan from Company X, Platoon X, Squad X has a series of numbers.

Xie Yuchen walked to the next bed frame and softly read out, "1326." The symbols here had a subtle change; he didn't recognize them because they didn't belong to any script he had ever seen.

It looks more like a symbol composed of characters.

“This might be a special symbolic designation created by the Zhang family themselves,” Xie Yuchen said. “The numbers that follow are the serial numbers of these wooden beds.”

Jie San was puzzled. "Could it be that people used to live here? That would be incredible, living in such a gloomy and haunted place."

Pan Zi wiped the bottom bunk's bed board, sniffed the dust on his fingertips, and looked a little unwell. "It's true that someone lived here, but it was someone who couldn't breathe."

He could smell it on the bed frame; the rotten wood was mixed with a faint odor of death.

"What do you mean?"

Jie Sanduo was somewhat frightened. "Master Pan, are you saying that this place used to be inhabited by dead people?"

"This place really does resemble an ancient version of a morgue. The temperature here is very low, which is indeed suitable for storing corpses."

Xie Yuchen slowly analyzed, "This place may just be a temporary storage place for the remains of the Zhang family when they were relocated for a mass burial. Look at the size of these bed boards and bed frames, they are big enough to fit a coffin and are easy to move."

A large family like the Zhang family must have many branches, and the special symbol before the number is likely the one they use to distinguish between the different branches.

There were no particular clues here, so the group didn't linger and walked past rows of wooden bed frames toward the center of the stone hall.

With a flicker of the lamplight, Panzi suddenly spotted a gray shadow and immediately hissed, "Who's over there?"

Everyone immediately became alert and shone their flashlights in unison.

Then they discovered a large white cloth bag placed on the bed board of a wooden canopy at the end of the stone hall.

It looks a lot like a body bag!

"Could it be that there are still Zhang family members' bodies left here that haven't been removed?" someone speculated.

"Let's go take a look." Xie Yuchen slightly raised his chin in that direction, and one of the waiters stepped out and cautiously crouched down to approach.

Once inside, the man mustered his courage and approached, examining the nearly two-meter-long and half-meter-wide white Oxford cloth from head to toe to confirm that it contained something and was rather heavy.

The guy tentatively poked it, his finger feeling cool, as if he had poked a piece of dried-out cured meat. "Boss, it looks like there's a dead person inside."

Upon hearing this, Xie Yuchen instinctively covered his nose with the back of his hand, "Open it and take a look."

"Okay." The shopkeeper found the zipper at one end of the bag, and the moment he pulled it open, a strange and indescribable fragrance wafted out, like the scent of essential oils emanating from a lit scented candle.

Looking closer, he saw the corpse's face and froze in terror. He jumped back, his finger trembling as he pointed into the bag and cried out, "My God—this...this...this is a zongzi!"

It's not just a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling), it also looks kind of familiar.

These men under Xie Yuchen were not inexperienced tomb raiders, and this sudden reaction immediately gave Xie Yuchen a bad feeling.

He strode over, shone the lamp, and when he saw the pale, emaciated corpse inside, his expression immediately changed.

The waiter stammered, "Boss, this... why... why is the Huo family head here, and why is she like this..."

Xie Yuchen naturally recognized the corpse as Huo Xiangu, but to his astonishment, Huo Xiangu's bones seemed to have undergone some kind of abnormal change.

Perhaps due to the lack of vitality and moisture, her facial bones seemed to have been elongated, and all the muscles in her body were atrophied and shriveled, as if she had been hung in a shady place to dry.

Most importantly, on her slender, bony neck, she wore an ancient jade ring with shimmering light.

When Pan Zi heard the waiter say that the person lying in the body bag was Huo Xiangu, he hurriedly went forward to identify her. He looked at her carefully for a while before finally connecting the corpse in front of him with the elegant and dignified old lady Huo in the photo.

Since Huo Xiangu's body is lying here, where did Brother Muyu and the others go?

Xie Yuchen put on gloves and gave the body a quick examination. He said softly, "Grandma Huo died of alkaline gas poisoning. Her heart stopped due to respiratory failure, and her lungs were completely rotten."

The old lady was already in poor health, so this cause of death is not unusual.

"Could it be that Mu Yu and his group brought the old lady's body here? After all, this is the Zhang family's morgue, which is a good place to preserve bodies," Pan Zi speculated.

“It’s possible.” Xie Yuchen sighed. He had a headache. Whoever put the body here had given him a problem. He could already imagine how Xiuxiu would break down after learning that her grandmother had died.

Just as he was about to cover the body, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, paused for a moment, then reached under Old Mrs. Huo's hair and took out a small grayish-white cloth bag. Opening it, he found a small white porcelain bottle and a black flip phone with a blue Doraemon character with his arms crossed and a cool expression on the front.

Panzi's eyes lit up and he immediately said, "This is Muyu's phone. I've seen him use it before."

When Zhang Wuxun went to Changsha to find him, he brought this Doraemon.

"Quickly open it and see, the wooden fish must have left us a clue inside," he urged urgently.

Xie Yuchen took off his gloves, took out the phone, and found that it was turned off. He pressed the power button for more than ten seconds but there was no response. Seeing that the phone was the same model as his, he removed the back cover and replaced it with the spare battery he had prepared.

The screen lit up this time. Xie Yuchen first opened the notes app, which was blank, so he went back and opened the photo album, where he found several videos.

The video quality is very unstable; it's as if the phone was being used as a camera and was being filmed by clipping it to the collar.

The video begins with a series of images of a creature running rapidly through a dark green jade vein. The camera is focused on the scene in front of the viewer. After turning two corners, a roaring Miluo Tuo suddenly leaps out of the scene, with most of its body already squeezed out of the jade vein.

The video suddenly stopped, a flash of cold light streaked across the screen, and Miluotuo was instantly sliced ​​off more than half of its body, along with the black-haired snake inside, all killed.

The person in the video coughed twice, took a few shallow breaths, and after catching their breath, continued walking forward with the knife in hand, talking as they went. Their voice was a bit muffled, but it was still barely audible.

"...The fact that you got this phone means you were indeed following the map I drew, and that you arrived at a place that looks like a morgue..."

"...You should be Xie Yuchen, or Pan Zi, or maybe both of you. But it doesn't matter. After all, being able to get the map means that you are both people Wu Xie can trust at this stage."

Xie Yuchen raised an eyebrow slightly and continued reading.

"The place you are in now is the heart of the mountain that the Zhang family set up back then, and it is also a temporary shelter."

"As long as we don't go out, this place is safe for the time being. Miluotuo can't get in because the walls are made of volcanic rock."

In the video, Zhang Wuxun turned around and came to a slightly larger stone cave. He put down his backpack, took out his phone and fixed it to the side, with the camera pointing at his profile.

That once clean and meticulous face was now covered in grime, and the collar of his windbreaker was tightly buttoned up, the white fabric stained with sticky green liquid.

Panzi knew that Muyu was a germaphobe, and it was clear that the situation was so urgent that he didn't even have time to change into a clean set of clothes.

As Zhang Wuxun took out a bomb from his backpack and placed it, he said, "What I'm about to say is a hint and a warning to you. Whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you."

"You should have already examined the condition of Old Madam Huo's body. This is what it looks like to preserve a whole body after being poisoned by the strong alkali of Gulou. Because we did not directly confront the alkali gas, otherwise, the body would have been burned and rotted in less than thirty seconds, and the body would eventually be corroded into water by the strong alkali."

"Don't even think about wearing protective suits, it's useless. When the alkaline gas is at its strongest, even the most advanced equipment in the world can only protect you for three minutes. Once that time is up, the alkaline poison will enter your body, your skin will ulcerate, you will suffer respiratory failure, and you will die after struggling for two minutes. But luckily, we have found a temporary shelter."

"But that place can only accommodate us for about three or four days. During that time, the alkaline gas will still slowly seep in. That's how Old Mrs. Huo died. She was too weak, and the alkaline gas had a fatal effect on her."

"Actually, you shouldn't have come in. Coming in is tantamount to suicide. This was a planning error on my part. I didn't expect that because there were too many people and so many Miluotu, the release of alkaline gas would take three times longer than planned."

"This is why you are surrounded by Miluotuo and cannot get in, while we are trapped by the alkaline gas and cannot get out."

"Even if you get in, you will still be trapped by the alkaline gas, which will only increase casualties."

After Zhang Wuxun placed the bombs and gunpowder, set the timer, put on his equipment, stood up, and tucked his phone back into his collar. His pace quickened considerably.

He spoke into his phone while dealing with the occasional Miluot that popped up.

"The thing around the old lady's neck is called a corpse ring. Its purpose is to prevent corpses from turning into corpses. Xie Yuchen, you are good at disguise, so you must have noticed the changes on the old lady's body. This is related to the largest tomb raiding operation of the Nine Gates. All the people who participated in it will undergo a terrible mutation after death. In order to ensure that her body will not change during the journey, I found one of those jade rings in the ancient building and put it on her."

"After the old lady died, I took her body and equipment from the temporary shelter. I was going to meet you, but while traversing the Jade Vein, I discovered that the dangers in the mountains near the ancient building were not limited to Miluotuo. There was something even more terrifying than Miluotuo, and their only natural enemy was strong alkali."

“Although I still can’t be sure what it is, I can feel that they’ve already set their sights on me.” Zhang Wuxun’s voice suddenly lowered, and in this environment, the terror effect was amplified.

The countdown to the previously planted bomb ended, and after a deafening explosion, countless chilling sounds of Miluotu running could be heard in the video.

Everyone outside the video was startled, and the video feed went dark at that moment.

I initially thought the phone had fallen to the ground and the camera was blocked, causing the screen to go black. But after waiting for a while, the video still didn't respond. I pressed the start button and found that it started playing from the beginning again.

"That's it?" Panzi asked anxiously. "Master Hua, please play the next one quickly."

Xie Yuchen opened the second video stored in the album. The screen was black at the beginning, but he could hear the sounds of fighting and collisions, Miluo Tuo's roar, and heavy objects falling to the ground.

When the progress bar was more than halfway through, the scene finally changed. Zhang Wuxun picked up the phone from the ground, and the haphazardly lying corpses of Miluotu flashed across the screen.

"...They've already got their eyes on me." Zhang Wuxun placed the bomb, lowered his voice, and continued forward, avoiding the Miluotu on the ground.

He didn't say what was targeting him, but from his tone, Xie Yuchen and the others could clearly hear that he had a deep fear of that unknown thing.

Clearly, these "them" are extremely troublesome. Even Zhang Wuxun, who was able to handle the siege of Miluotu with ease, thought he couldn't deal with this matter.

"More and more Miluotuo are attacking me, and that's because of them. They are more like a kind of mind control. I've already been affected once. They took me to a deeper part of the mountain, where there was a very, very strange Miluotuo. No, it shouldn't be called Miluotuo anymore."

"I speculate that it may be a new species that has evolved and mutated, the highest level in this space. It can control all the Miluotuo, and wherever there is a jade vein, there is its eye."

"This is a form of devouring evolution. It not only eats humans, but also its own kind, the Miluotu. It moves very fast..."

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(End of this chapter)